Sunday, January 11, 2009

I ordered a new Gadget!!!!

Actually I ordered two of them.... One for my oldest to use in her college classes.... and one for my youngest to use in her high school sophomore classes! Yes I wanted one for me but I really don't have any REAL use for one. Maybe they will let me play with theirs or borrow it if I go to a conference.

The Livescribe Pulse smartpen places a computer inside a writing stylus to deliver a pen and voice recorder that remembers everything it writes and syncs it all with your PC.

There is a tiny scanner in the tip of the pen that picks up invisible dots in the special paper to keep a timeline of where the pen comes into contact with the paper. The pen can have its voice recorder activated, so it records audio while the notes are taken and afterwards, simply by touching the pen to any point in the notes, you can play back what was being said at the time.

If this sounds amazing, it is and it works. A journalist colleague swears by the smartpen now. Livescribe sells notebooks of the special Dot Paper, and users can even print out their own Dot Paper using a 600 dpi or greater printer.

Here's a video to help explain (it's a bit cheesy but it is aimed at students).

The pen is designed to make note-taking - for journos and for students - really easy. What's more, the pen uses handwriting recognition to solve maths questions and translate words. No, I am not making that bit up.

The notes can all be downloaded onto your computer using the Livescribe Desktop. The system is Windows compatible and there is a public beta to download for Mac users. A starter pack of the pen, the software, some of the special notebooks and other bits of kits costs around $149 for the 1gb and $199 for the 2gb. The Livescribe website is here.

20 comments:

This is incredibly COOL! I've never heard of it! Your video didn't show for me so I searched cnet's review on YT and just got done listening to it. I want one too!!! LOL but I don't have the need for it either. I can see where it would be a GREAT asset to a student though. The only thing I didn't get from the cnet review video is the price of the pads of paper. I know it comes with one, but I'm curious if the additional pads are expensive. Oh, and you know how easy it is to lose a pen.. losing this one would SUCK! LOL

Here's the link to the cnet video for others who may not be able to view the one you posted:

I bet this is the link to the cheesy video you posted.. but I'm not sure since I can't watch your video (I just have that little red X). This video is a RIOT but it tells a LOT of information in a little bit of time.

My brother ordered two of these pens when they were first available from the manufacturer. His thinking apparently was that he would have a backup should he ever lose one. Quickly realizing that he might have over-ordered, he offered one to me to try.

There were a lot of reasons I was not enthusiastic about his offer. The first was that unlike my brother, I actually do lose pens from time to time, even expensive ones. So if I lost this thing I would owe my brother money. Second, I am a Mac enthusiast and the desktop software for a Mac platform will not be available until the end of 2008. Finally, the necessity of the product escaped me.

But being a toy lover I put aside my objections and accepted his loan. A few weeks later I was calling customer support on a desktop issue (I installed it on my only Windows computer, a Toshiba tablet). The problem was a software glitch, since in reality the pen was still in beta. The customer service rep solving the problem asked if it was registered in my name. I assured her it was. I then told her that my brother had bought the pen but that he was never getting it back. I could hear my statement relayed around the support department where it was greeted with shouts and laughter. They knew. I was a convert. I had drunk the Kool-aid and was forever theirs.

Okay so what do I use it for? I take it to hearings and depositions (I am a lawyer, remember?). These are public events under Florida law and there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.This is important since the pen doesn't just record the strokes of the pen, it records everything being said. And it records it very well. Here is the cool part, touch a word in your notes and you will hear whatever was happening at that time. My favorite demonstration to date is to touch a word from a contested trial where I got to ask a witness if he had ever told people that he spoke to the dead and that they spoke back to him. The guy nearly came across the table at me, a point also recorded. Now an aside to lawyers, law students and pro se litigants-do not ever ask someone this question unless you have an email from the witness attesting to his ability to commune with the formerly alive.

The recording capacity of this pen is astonishing. The manufacturer suggests that the 2GB pen will hold 200 hours of audio. I have no reason to doubt it, since constant use has barely tapped its capacity.

When the pen is uploaded to the desktop software (currently Windows only) images of the notes and the audio are loaded into the computer. From there it can be uploaded to an online site where it is Mac accessible. For now this satisfies my Mac needs at least till the end of the year.

You need special paper to take advantage of the upload features. Fortunately, the supplies are reasonably priced and available online. However the notebook supplied with the pen is most generous.

There are lots of other features in the pen. It is possible to draw a keyboard and play notes (musical notes) on it. My daughter, a music ed major, particularly enjoys this. There is even a cute animation demo built in whose 3-D sound as heard through the earbuds is astonishing and mildly amusing.

So who could use this pen other than trial lawyers? Students seem to be a logical group. Perhaps physicians and nurses could use it. Did the patient really say he had a condition or did he say something else? Livescribe needs to produce industry specific paper for just such uses, or to allow outside vendors to create it.

This product will revolutionize the workplace in ways that we cannot now predict. All we can predict is that it will prove to be one of the most significant technologies of this decade in the same way the personal computer was in the 1980s. Click the"Buy" button now. You will not regret it.

BREAKING NEWS

The Mac Desktop promised by the end of 2008 is available on 11/24/08 for download at www.livescribe.com. It promises certain enhancements over the original windows software,

"The Mac version of Livescribe Desktop also offers two additional features not available in the Windows version. First, Mac users will have the ability to export their recordings into AAC audio files. Mac users can also export their notes as PDF files directly from the Desktop application. All current and new users of the Pulse smartpen can use Pulse with Mac computers for free. "

LOL... Angie.. you are doing EXACTLY what I did this afternoon when I first spotted this...

I wondered if they would really work and searched for 'reviews'.... I sure hope they work like everything seems to say! I found one review that said a lady bought it for her 16 year old son and it had turned him around in school!

I can see where it would help a child who is having difficulty in school. I was thinking this would benefit my daughter. She's taking four college courses this year during her senior year of High School (yes, she's very much an over achiever). Her psychology course is giving her some trouble, so to be able to record the instructor, and play it back (connecting it of course to the notes she's taking), I feel would be a huge blessing. She's still been able to maintain an A in the class, but it's a struggle. To me, what's cool about the college courses is that even with C's in the class, her GPA would still be 4.0.. but obviously that's not acceptable to her. I think her GPA right now is somewhere around 5.65. One of her classes is a normal class, so with it being a max of 4.0, it does drop the overall GPA.

Yeah, I was just bragging a bit. LOL Both my kids have always done great in school, I'm so PROUD of their drive!!!

Angie college Psychology was the toughest course I ever took. I guess it was my professor who was a jerk but your daughter shouldn't feel bad about that course being tough on her. It gives me the creeps thinking about that class. LOL

Jim, she's got a jerk for a Professor too which is probably why she's having such a hard time! The right teacher can make or break a class! I'd like to sit the buttwipe down and talk to him. He laughs at the kids and makes fun of them.. that's SO not right!

I was so fortunate in college to have all wonderful Professor's in my Psychology courses (fyi, I majored in Psychology).

Ann, I just sent out my first resume prepared based on one of the examples from that website you posted. Your info was a BIG help and I think I put out a better product because of it. Thank you for blogging!

Just thought I would put out the FYI that...it works! it works! it works!!! I love this gadget! I recorded 1.5 hrs of lecture over 5 pages of notes yesterday and have re-listened to the lecture already! wonderful! So thanks again!~GA